May 26, 2013 The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

[이안드레아]

2013년 5월 26 삼위일체 대축일(청소년 주일·생명의 날)

제1독서

잠언.8,22-31
하느님의 지혜가 이렇게 말하였다.
22“주님께서는 그 옛날 모든 일을 하시기 전에 당신의 첫 작품으로 나를 지으셨다.
23 나는 한처음 세상이 시작되기 전에 영원에서부터 모습이 갖추어졌다.
24 심연이 생기기 전에, 물 많은 샘들이 생기기 전에 나는 태어났다. 25 산들이 자리 잡기 전에, 언덕들이 생기기 전에 나는 태어났다. 26 그분께서 땅과 들을, 누리의 첫 흙을 만드시기 전이다.
27 그분께서 하늘을 세우실 때, 심연 위에 테두리를 정하실 때 나 거기 있었다.
28 그분께서 위의 구름을 굳히시고 심연의 샘들을 솟구치게 하실 때, 29 물이 그분의 명령을 어기지 않도록 바다에 경계를 두실 때, 그분께서 땅의 기초를 놓으실 때 30 나는 그분 곁에서 사랑받는 아이였다.
나는 날마다 그분께 즐거움이었고, 언제나 그분 앞에서 뛰놀았다. 31 나는 그분께서 지으신 땅 위에서 뛰놀며 사람들을 내 기쁨으로 삼았다.”

로마서 .5,1-5
형 제 여러분, 1 믿음으로 의롭게 된 우리는 우리 주 예수 그리스도를 통하여 하느님과 더불어 평화를 누립니다. 2 믿음 덕분에, 우리는 그리스도를 통하여 우리가 서 있는 이 은총 속으로 들어올 수 있게 되었습니다. 그리고 하느님의 영광에 참여하리라는 희망을 자랑으로 여깁니다.
3 그뿐만 아니라, 우리는 환난도 자랑으로 여깁니다. 우리가 알고 있듯이, 환난은 인내를 자아내고, 4 인내는 수양을, 수양은 희망을 자아냅니다. 5 그리고 희망은 우리를 부끄럽게 하지 않습니다. 우리가 받은 성령을 통하여 하느님의 사랑이 우리 마음에 부어졌기 때문입니다.

복음

요한.16,12-15
그때에 예수님께서 제자들에게 말씀하셨다.
12 “내가 너희에게 할 말이 아직도 많지만, 너희가 지금은 그것을 감당하지 못한다. 13 그러나 그분, 곧 진리의 영께서 오시면 너희를 모든 진리 안으로 이끌어 주실 것이다. 그분께서는 스스로 이야기하지 않으시고, 들으시는 것만 이야기하시며, 또 앞으로 올 일들을 너희에게 알려 주실 것이다.
14 그분께서 나를 영광스럽게 하실 것이다. 나에게서 받아 너희에게 알려 주실 것이기 때문이다. 15 아버지께서 가지고 계신 것은 모두 나의 것이다. 그렇기 때문에, 성령께서 나에게서 받아 너희에게 알려 주실 것이라고 내가 말하였다.”

제2독서

Sunday, May 26, 2013 Daily Mass Reading

May 26, 2013
The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity

Reading 1

Prv 8:22-31

Thus says the wisdom of God:

"The LORD possessed me, the beginning of his ways,

the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;

from of old I was poured forth,

at the first, before the earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

when there were no fountains or springs of water;

before the mountains were settled into place,

before the hills, I was brought forth;

while as yet the earth and fields were not made,

nor the first clods of the world.

"When the Lord established the heavens I was there,

when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;

when he made firm the skies above,

when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;

when he set for the sea its limit,

so that the waters should not transgress his command;

then was I beside him as his craftsman,

and I was his delight day by day,

playing before him all the while,

playing on the surface of his earth;

and I found delight in the human race."

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 8:4-5, 6-7, 8-9

R. (2a) O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars which you set in place —
What is man that you should be mindful of him,
or the son of man that you should care for him?

R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

You have made him little less than the angels,
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You have given him rule over the works of your hands,
putting all things under his feet:

R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

All sheep and oxen,
yes, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air, the fishes of the sea,
and whatever swims the paths of the seas.

R. O Lord, our God, how wonderful your name in all the earth!

Reading 2

Rom 5:1-5

Brothers and sisters:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom we have gained access by faith

to this grace in which we stand,

and we boast in hope of the glory of God.

Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions,

knowing that affliction produces endurance,

and endurance, proven character,

and proven character, hope,

and hope does not disappoint,

because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts

through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Gospel

Jn 16:12-15

Jesus said to his disciples:

"I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now.

But when he comes, the Spirit of truth,

he will guide you to all truth.

He will not speak on his own,

but he will speak what he hears,

and will declare to you the things that are coming.

He will glorify me,

because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you.

Everything that the Father has is mine;

for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine

and declare it to you."

http://www.evangeli.net/gospel/gospel.html

When He, the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into the whole truth

Today, we celebrate the solemnity of the mystery at the center of our faith, where everything originates from and where everything returns to. The mystery of the unity and of God, and at the same time, his subsistence in three equal and yet, different Persons. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: unity in communion and communion in unity. In this great day, we must realize that his great mystery is ever present in our lives: from the very Sacrament of our Baptism —which we have received in the name of the Holy Trinity— till our participation in the mystery of the Eucharist, which is made for the glory of the Father, by his Son Jesus Christ, thanks to the Holy Spirit. And it is also the signal by which we Christians recognize one another: the sign of the Cross, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

The mission of the Son, Jesus Christ, consists in the revelation of his Father, whom He is the perfect image of, and in the gift of the Spirit, which has also been revealed by the Son. Today, the proclaimed evangelic reading shows it up to us: the Son receives everything from the Father in perfect unity: «All that the Father has is mine», and the Spirit receives all that the Spirit is from the Father and the Son. «Because of this —says Jesus— I have just told you, that the Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you» (Jn 16:15). And in another part of this same chapter (Jn 15:26): «When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, He will testify about me».

From all that, let us learn the great and comforting truth: the Holy Trinity, far from being distant and aloof, comes to us, dwells within us and transforms us in its interlocutors. And this, through the Spirit, which guide us into the whole truth (cf. Jn 16:13). The incomparable “Christian dignity”, which, St. Leo the Great, at times, speaks about, is this: to keep God's mystery within us and, thus, revel in our Earth of our own Heavenly “citizenship” (cf. Phil 3:20), that is, into the Holy Trinity's bosom.

http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

PRE-PRAYERING

This weekend, here in the United States, we are celebrating and remembering all those American women and men who have died in military service throughout our history. Tomorrow, Monday, is Memorial Day. There will be prayer services in cemeteries and churches, the annual five hundred mile car race and many picnics and celebrations of life.

We tend to forget what we are remembering on a day like this. We have been involved in so many wars and so many have died defending and protecting life. There are the “Unknown” Soldiers, the Missing, those lost at sea, as well as those who died so far from home, such as at Normandy, that few receive visits or remembering at all.

They all gave their lives so that others might live. They gave all they had so that we, the living, might have more. We move toward the Eucharist to celebrate them within the celebration of Him Who died that we might have life, have it to the full and for eternity. So very much to remember that it surpasses our personal limited abilities. This is exactly why we gather together with those limitations of remembering to give perfect thanks, unlimitedly, through the perfect Thank You of Jesus which we remember every day. Every day then is our true Memorial Day.

REFLECTION

Our First Reading from the Book of Proverbs is a long poetic reflection of the co-eternity within the Trinity. Before this thing, that tangible and familiar creation, before the sea was set, some personal presence was. After this series of creational illustrations, this “Was” states that it found delight in the interplay with the human race, imagine that! We interpret this “was-ness” to be the Holy Spirit, whose descending upon the Apostles, we celebrated last Sunday.

It can sound as if the Holy Spirit was like a little child or elf playing in God’s backyard delighting God by tumbling or just getting down and dirty. It is poetic and serious. God is more than meets the eye, but through the play-work of the Spirit we can see something of the “Was-ness” and “Is-ness” of God.

In the five chapters of John’s Gospel containing the Last Discourse, Jesus is pictured as giving, handing over, and commending many things from his Father to his disciples. In the few verses from this section, which we hear in today’s Gospel, Jesus is telling his friends that what he is giving he has as his and the Father has shared all with him. He is the Truth and has passed and will continue to pass this Truth, this existence on into the world. Truth does not allow us to be righteously aggressive nor defensively secure. He, Jesus, as Truth, lived vulnerably and availably to be received and or rejected.

Jesus is the “What” of the Trinity which is offered for the acceptance or dismissal of humanity. In our disrespectful youth, when a friend would offer something, holding it out in their hand, the fun was to bring your flattened hand and up from underneath, knock it flying. A good way to lose friends, I would say. What would happen if that friend did the hand-offering of a gift a second time — foolish on him.

It seems one way to get a quick, but insufficient glimpse of this mysterious Trinity, is to watch how the creative Hand of God keeps offering, with delight, the gifts of life, personality, physical, psychological, for us and to us. The Spirit of God seems to be how the material, spiritual, all are handed again and again whether we slap it away or reverently take it in. Here is a little hint. We can be sure something we have or something we are, is a gift when we desire to hand it on, hand it over, hand it without strings. This interior freedom and desire is an experience of how the Spirit of God plays its part in the Trinity. God gives the Son and then gives the Spirit so we can know and receive the Son in Whom all else is created and handed to us. The Spirit is given so that we can see, know, receive all the other gifts in the Son, in Christ, and then are gently moved to keep them moving along.

We can slap, refuse, deny and reject, but Love moves outward, respecting the slapping hands, and works to perhaps find away into our other hands. So it is all about being loved in action. God is not a thought, a good idea. God is a trinplex of offering, receiving and continuing. The Trinity is indeed a mystery and so is how patient, faithful and insistently consistent God is, was and always.

“Since you are children of God, God has sent into your hearts the spirit of His Son, the Spirit Who cries out, Abba, Father.”

http://www.rc.net/wcc/readings/

"The Spirit will guide you into all the truth"

Jesus makes a claim which only God can make – he knows all things – the present and the past, as well as the future. Jesus not only claims to speak the truth, he calls himself the very source of truth when he proclaims that he is the way, the truth and the life. Now Jesus promises to send his disciples the Spirit of truth who will guide them in understanding all that Jesus came to say and do! Jesus tells his disciples that it is the role of the Holy Spirit to reveal what is true. It is through the gift and working of the Holy Spirit, who enlightens our hearts and minds, that we come to understand that God is a trinity of persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Jews understood God as Creator and Father of all that he made (Deuteronomy 32:6) and they understood the nation of Israel as God's firstborn son (Exodus 4:22). Jesus reveals the Father in an unheard of sense. He is eternally Father by his relationship to his only-begotten Son, who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father (see Matthew 11:27). The Spirit, likewise, is inseparably one with the Father and the Son. Jesus reveals the triune nature of God and the inseparable union of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The mission of Jesus and of the Holy Spirit are the same – to reveal the glory of God and to share that glory with us by uniting us in a community of love with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is why Jesus tells his disciples that the Spirit will reveal the glory of the Father and the Son and will speak what is true. Before his Passover, Jesus revealed the Holy Spirit as the “Paraclete” and Helper who will be with Jesus’ disciples to teach and guide them “into all the truth” (John 14:17,26; 16:13). The ultimate end, the purpose for which God created us, is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the blessed Trinity. In baptism we are called to share in the life of the Holy Trinity here on earth in faith and after death in eternal light.

Clement of Alexandria (150-215 AD), an early church father and teacher at the catechetical school in Alexandria, wrote: “What an astonishing mystery! There is one Father of the universe, one Logos (Word) of the universe, and also one Holy Spirit, everywhere one and the same; there is also one virgin become mother, and I should like to call her 'Church'."

How can we personally know the Father and his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ? It is the Holy Spirit who reveals the Father and the Son to us and who gives us the gift of faith to know and understand the truth of God’s word. Through the Holy Spirit, we proclaim our ancient faith in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ until he comes again. The Lord gives us his Holy Spirit as our divine Teacher and Helper that we may grow in the knowledge and wisdom of God. Do you seek the wisdom that comes from above and do you eagerly listen to God's word and obey it?

"May the Lord Jesus put his hands on our eyes also, for then we too shall begin to look not at what is seen but at what is not seen. May he open the eyes that are concerned not with the present but with what is yet to come, may he unseal the heart's vision, that we may gaze on God in the Spirit, through the same Lord, Jesus Christ, whose glory and power will endure throughout the unending succession of ages." (prayer of Origin, 185-254 AD)

Psalm 8:1-9

1 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You whose glory above the heavens is chanted
2 by the mouth of babes and infants,you have founded a bulwark because ofyour foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of yourfingers, the moon and the stars which you have established;
4 what is man thatyou are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5 Yet you have made him little less than God, and crown him with glory and honor.
6 You have given him dominion over the works ofyour hands;you have put all things under his feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea.
9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

http://www.daily-meditations.org/index2.html

How many times a day do we make the sign of the Cross, "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit"?

By so doing, we are invoking the blessing of one God in three Persons on a prayer, a meal, or to begin the most sacred action in our lives, sharing in the holy sacrifice of the Mass. At the same time, we proclaim our belief in the very nature of God. Just as a rose doesn't have a "why," neither does the Holy Trinity have an answer to our "why" nor "how," it just exists as the foundation of all that is. When Moses asked what God's name was, God responded, "I am who am"! We must just accept the mystery, thank God for being God, and find in its reality the only reason for joy and hope!

So let's take a fresh look at Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As Persons, Their work is that of Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Although we attribute the creation of the world to God the Father, both the Eternal Word and the Holy Spirit were sharers in that stupendous event. And all three Persons enjoyed it! They danced and played with delight at what They had done. In fact, They have never ceased Their constant joy. It is the nature of God to rejoice and to love the creatures that sprang forth. All three Persons in the one God have never stopped loving us, despite our traitorous betrayal of Their love.

The second reading from St. Paul to the Romans assures us that our faith in Jesus Christ leads to our justification. That brings us a reason to hope through patience in our afflictions. Patience leads to endurance, and endurance to character. "Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given us." (Romans 5:5)

In the remarkable Gospel, Jesus reveals to His apostles and to us, the very intimate relationship that He holds with both the Father and the Holy Spirit, making God a Trinity of Persons. He urges them to "let go" of their narrow focus on His physical presence and to be prepared for their astounding new role of life "in the Holy Spirit" that will expand their minds and hearts to "all truth." The Holy Trinity is not a distant truth, for we are temples of the Holy Spirit and possessed of the truth, the power, and the love of the Trinity. May we be caught up even now in the dance and joy of that life!

Each Trinity Sunday, we only scratch the surface of this great mystery of our faith. In gratitude and faith, let us begin and end every prayer with greater faith and reverence "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen."

http://goodnews.ie/calendar.php

"Who can understand the Trinity?" wrote St Augustine in the 5th century. "Rare are the persons who, when they speak of it, also know what they speak of…." Then with all due qualifications and apologies, he suggests a way that might throw a little light on it.

Look at yourself, he says; you see that you exist and that you have a mind and a will. These are three dimensions of your reality, and yet you are one. You are a kind of trinity: three in one and one in three. It is only an image, yes, but it has this advantage: that it is taken from personal life, and not from mathematics. Sometimes people have seen the mystery of the Trinity as a piece of impossible mathematics in which 1 x 3 is still 1. St John, like Augustine, looked in personal life for analogies of the Trinity. He wrote, "Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love" (1 John 4:8). This is a profoundly challenging statement. If I don’t live in love I don’t know God. A little further on John wrote, "God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them" (1 John 4:16). I may be the most learned theologian in the world, I may have hundreds of ideas for the betterment of the Church and society, I may be working like a slave to implement these ideas; but if I am not living in love it is wasted effort.

Let's extend the personal image a little further, to groups of persons trying to live together. There are two things, mainly, that people suffer from in families and communities of every kind. One is a feeling of suffocation, of not being allowed to be themselves, of having no identity except that of the group. The other is opposite but equally painful: a loss of identification (or only a very loose identification) with the community. Here the individuals circle around one another at a distance, like planets, and this leads to loneliness. These two are opposite poles: too much family and too little, suffocation and loneliness. Now try to think again about the Trinity. The Father is eternally the Father. He never has been and never will be the Son or the Spirit. Likewise the other Persons. Each is eternally a unique Person. There is no suffocation. And yet they are so much one that we have to say there is only one God. The doctrine of the Trinity shows us that the inner life of God is a community - the only perfect community. Such a life we all aspire to, such a life we long for in all our dreams and waking: full presence to others without being diminished or disrespected in any way, a joyful pouring out of our lives for others, such that it makes us fully who we are ourselves.

Deep down, our longing for such a community is our longing for God. All our struggle to achieve peace and harmony in our families and neighbourhoods is our struggle for God, and all the pain and frustration we experience on the way is redeemed and given meaning by that transcendent Community that is God.

http://www.presentationministries.com/

ONE IN THREE, YOU IN THREE

"The Lord begot me, the first-born of His ways." 뾒roverbs 8:22

In love, God the Father has begotten, is begetting, and will be begetting Jesus always, beyond time, eternally. Jesus is the uniquely begotten, beloved Son of God. This eternal love of the Father and the Son is so real that it is the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Blessed Trinity.

The Trinity is so important to us because we are in the Trinity and the Trinity is in us (see Jn 17:23; 1 Cor 6:19). We are not gods, but we are in God and He is in us (see 1 Jn 4:16). We are sharers in the divine nature (2 Pt 1:4). In the Trinity, "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). The Trinity is more practically important to us than air.

How can we live the Trinitarian life? How can we become the very holiness of the Holy Trinity (2 Cor 5:21) and be one as the Trinity is one? (see Jn 17:21) The Holy Spirit will guide us into Trinitarian life (see Jn 16:13), for "no one knows what lies at the depths of God but the Spirit of God" (1 Cor 2:11). "The love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us" (Rm 5:5). In this Year of Faith, we pray: "Come, Holy Spirit," so that we can give glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit!

Prayer: Father, may I live in Your love (Jn 15:10); Jesus, may I receive Your grace; Holy Spirit, may I be in Your fellowship (see 2 Cor 13:13).

Promise: "I was His delight day by day, playing before Him all the while, playing on the surface of His earth." 뾒rv 8:30-31

Praise: "Praise the Holy Trinity, undivided Unity, holy God, mighty God, God immortal, be adored!"

http://biblereflection.blogspot.com/

Today's gospel reading continues Jesus' teaching on the Holy Spirit. He knew that at the end of his early life, many of God's revelations would still not be fully understood by his disciples ("You cannot bear it now"). However, he comforted them with the assurance that the Spirit of truth will come after him, to guide them, and all believers (including all of us in our time), into all truth.

In our daily prayer, let us allow the Holy Spirit to lead us to a deeper knowledge of Jesus and his teachings, and to help us apply his words and teachings to our lives; to give us the strength to overcome the difficulties and trials that we inevitably encounter; to bless us with patience and courage to cope with suffering; and to grant us peace and resignation to accept God's will, keeping in mind that He is always with us.

Fr. John Hardon, S.J., puts it this way: When Jesus promised to send us the Spirit. this Spirit of Christ is now joined to our spirit, or better, ours is joined to him. All we have to do is believe that this is so. We need to have people near us to have them hear us and so that we might catch what they are saying. What is true in the order of nature is also true in the order of grace. If proximity is a measure of intimacy and if being near someone is to be able to hear him speak, what shall we say about the nearness of Christ to the one who believes in Him? No human being can be as close to us as the Son of God in the Spirit that dwells in our souls.

All we have to do, therefore, is to have faith, and open our minds in prayer.

Homily from Father James Gilhooley
Most Holy Trinity

Trinity Sunday - Cycle C

John 16, 12-15

A story has it that the fifth century Augustine of Hippo was taking his summer holiday along the North African seashore.

Walking along the water's edge on a delightful day, he was pondering the mystery of the Trinity. All this genius was getting for his efforts was a severe headache. Finally he thought he was coming close to breaking the code of the mystery. He was about to shout, "Eureka!"

Suddenly at his feet was a boy of five The bishop asked him what he was doing. The youngster replied, "I am pouring the whole ocean into this small hole." Augustine said, "That's nonsense. No one can do that." Unintimidated by the towering giant above him, the child replied, "Well, neither can you, Bishop Augustine, unravel the mystery of the Trinity." Then he disappeared.

Whether this account is apocryphal or not, I leave to your good judgment. But I think we all get the point. The Trinity will remain a mystery forever and then some.

This morning over instant decaffinated coffee and a toasted raisin muffin, I read a highly favorable review of a book by Jack Miles in The New York Times. Miles calls his tome God: a Biography. The review opens with this paragraph, "You cannot plumb the depths of the human heart," reads a passage in the Apocrypha, "nor find out what a man is thinking. How do you expect to search out God, who made all these things, and find out His mind or comprehend His thoughts?" The youngster of the St Augustine story would shake his head in approval of these lines.

Now you better understand I think what we are up against on this feast in honor of three Persons in one God.

The early seventeenth century poet John Donne wrote breathlessly, "Batter my heart, three person'd God; for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend." Having just as breathlessly repeated that prayer, should we attempt to turn our backs on the Trinity and get on with our lives?

Inasmuch as the Teacher spoke of God as Father an awesome forty-five times at the Last Supper, we would be most unwise to do so. Recall this famous line from John 17,11, "Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name..." Nor can you disregard or neglect the Holy Spirit. John 14,16 says, "I shall ask the Father, and He will give you another Advocate...that Spirit of truth." Forget the Trinity and we do so at our own peril and also serious loss. There is much spiritual richness to be wrestled from a devotion to the Trinity.

Eg, we can know we are told a lot about Jesus but only through the Spirit can we know Jesus. Would you want to pass that opportunity up?

I like the spin the Benedictine Daniel Durken puts on the triune God. He quotes a poem by Sister Mary Ignatius that closes, "That God is not up, but in!" Durken then argues we must remember the Father, Son, and the Spirit are not up there somewhere in the heavens but rather in each of our honorable selves.

The much-quoted Matthew 28,20 has the Master instructing His people to baptize "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." So Durken advises the Sacrament of Baptism drops us not only into water but also into the Trinity. The Trinity in turn is delighted to take up residence in us. So, just as the triune God is in us, so too are we in the triune God. Or, as Durken puts it, "We have an `in' with the Trinity."

People say of my hometown New York City, "It's sure a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." Happily the Trinity does not say the same of us. Rather, Pere Durken says the Trinity with all appropriate flourishes announces, "We're not just visiting. We're staying." The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have pitched a four season tent in each of us. They are in our spirits to be cultivated, called upon, prayed to, messaged, you name it. If one understands that, then the sky is literally the limit.

The fourteenth century German Dominican, Meister Eckhart, concluded our subject best with amusing langauge. "God laughed and the Son was born. Together they laughed and the Holy Spirit was born. From the laughter of all three the universe was born."

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Homily from Father Joseph Pellegrino
http://www.st.ignatius.net/pastor.html
Most Holy Trinity

The Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity:
The Mystery of God’s Love

This Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Trinity. Rather than give a theological explanation of the dogma, the belief of faith that we and all Christians, Catholic and non-Catholic, hold regarding the Trinity, I want to focus in on what the Trinity means to us as Church and as individuals.

The easiest place to begin is with love. The First Person of the Trinity is the Father. Jesus taught us to call His Father, Our Father. Actually, more than the formal “father” we are to call Him “Abba” or “Daddy”. This is not the view that many of us have of the First Person. We tend to see the Father only as the all powerful Creator with a view similar to the way Michelangelo presented Him on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. But the Father is Love. He created us out of love. He sent His Son to deliver us from the death that selfishness and hatred brought upon the world, to restore us to His Love. The Abba loves us.

We can certainly understand the Love of God in the Second Person, the Son. Jesus Christ is Love Incarnate, Divine Love taken on human flesh. There are many ways that He pours His Love on us, certainly the central way was through the sacrificial love of the Cross. The manifestation of His Love that is so real to each of us is His Compassion. He looks at us and sees out struggles, whether we suffer from that imposed upon us by others, we suffer from the frailness of our bodies, or we suffer from that which we do to ourselves, our sins. The Son understands our weakness and calls us to Himself, calls us to Love. He is the Compassionate One.

Our ability to respond to the Creative Love of the Father and the Compassionate Love of the Son is infinitely more powerful than any love the human soul can produce. We have been given the Spirit of Love, the Power of Love, the Holy Spirit.

The central truth of the Trinity is that we are immersed in Divine Love.

Back in 1970 there was a Broadway Musical named Godspel. I don’t know if many of you ever heard of it. It combined the folk music of the day and traditional Church hymns with a meditation on the Life of Jesus. One of the most famous songs repeated several times throughout the musical was called Day by Day. Perhaps you remember the song and the lyrics:

“Day by day. Three things do I pray. To see thee more clearly; to love thee more dearly; to follow thee more nearly, Day by day.”

The lyrics were not the creation of a Broadway songwriter. They came from a prayer written by St. Richard Chichester, a thirteenth century English saint. The Love of God, Father, Son and Spirit is reflected in these petitions.

To see thee more clearly. God created us in His image and likeness. This was the work of the Father, the Creator. A story might help here. A woman named Ann Weems was in Wisconsin to give a talk. Ann was from Tennessee and had that beautiful Tennessee drawl. During the dinner before the talk, a man who had a similar accent was introduced to her. He asked her, “Where are you from?” She replied, “I’m from Nashville.” “I thought so,” he said. “Who are your people?” he

asked. She replied, “My maiden name is Barr.” “Are you one of Tim Barr’s daughters?” he asked. “I am,” she said. Then he turned to his wife and friends and said, “She’s one of us. She’s Tim Barr’s daughter.” And then they began talking about the people they knew from Nashville. She was part of this community all of whom had a relationship to her Father.

To see thee more clearly is to see the image and likeness of God in each other. We are his people. We live in the Love of the Divine Lover, the Father.

To love thee more dearly. This petition is about God’s gift of his Son, Jesus Christ. Again, a story can be helpful here. On October 12, 2009, Pope Benedict canonized Fr. Damien de Veuster. St. Damien is often referred to as Damien the Leper. He was the courageous priest who ministered to the poor people of the dreadful leper colony of Hawaii at Kaluapappa on Molokai Island. . He was not supposed to be there. He was sent because he had been a carpenter and could assemble a small pre-built church for the poor people. Actually, he was the second person sent. A Hawaiin carpenter, a religious brother, had been told to re-assemble the chapel, but after the chapel was unloaded from the ship, just as the carpenter was beginning to work, many of the lepers gathered to see what was happening. The brother was so frightened by their presence that he swam back to the ship and demanded that he be taken back to Oahu. Fr. Damien, a Belgian, was then sent to assemble the chapel and then get out, hopefully within a day. He stayed. At first he was not very successful in convincing the people to come to Church. During the week he would go around the island encouraging people to come the next Sunday, but he was largely ignored. The few who did come heard him begin his homilies with, “You lepers.” One day, after returning from an long trek around the island, Fr. Damien put his aching feet into a tub of hot water. One foot didn’t feel the heat. Damien knew what that meant. He had contracted leprosy. The next Sunday he began his sermon with the words: “We lepers.” Like electricity the news spread around the island that Fr. Damien had leprosy. The next Sunday the church was filled to overflowing, and the Sunday after that and thereafter. Fr. Damien had taken on their flesh, their leprous flesh, and become one of them. They loved him more dearly because they experienced how much he loved them.

To love more dearly is to love the Second Person of the Trinity, the Incarnate God, the One who has compassion for us, the One who takes on our flesh, even our leprous flesh.

To follow thee more nearly is to allow the Spirit of God to work through our lives. The Spirit is the one who draws us into the Mystery of God. The Spirit also works through us to draw others to God. It may be difficult for many of us to understand the Holy Spirit. We want to concretize everything. The Spirit is just that, spiritual. He is God as action, God as verb, God as the very action of loving. We are quite correct when we say that we were inspired to say or do something that led ourselves or others to God. To follow thee more nearly is to allow this inspiration to take place.

The Mystery of the Holy Trinity is the Mystery of God’s Love. We live in this Love, the Love of the Father who creates and sustains us, the Love of the Son, the Merciful One, who became one of us and who overflows with compassion for each of us, and the love the Spirit, the One whose presence within us gives us the ability to love as God loves.

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Homily from Father Phil Bloom
http://stmaryvalleybloom.org/
* available in Spanish - see Spanish homilies
Most Holy Trinity

The Desire to be Known
(May 26, 2013)

Message: You and I have an immense inner life. We desire to be known - and only One can know us.

Today - Trinity Sunday - the Scripture readings focus on the inner life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. To enter this theme I would like to begin with something from Mark Twain. (Nicely appropriate for an American holiday weekend.) Mark Twain is the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, Innocents Abroad and a surprising book on St. Joan of Arc. Before he died, he wrote an autobiography that he asked not be published until 100 years after his death. It gives glimpses into one of the liveliest minds our nation has produced. He remarks on the impossibility of anything like a complete account: What any person experiences in a single day - if you wrote it out - could fill a couple of volumes.*

In describing the complexity of the inner human experience, Mark Twain gives an image for approaching the mystery of God. Within each of us an ocean churns and from below the surface emerge things that amaze and even startle us. If that is the case with our limited minds, what must the inner life of God be?

A few weeks ago we heard about that inner life: the conversation between Father and Son. From that conversation came the Big Bang and the resulting universe. That inner conversation encompasses the quarks and photons, the Dark Matter and Dark Energy that make up the cosmos. The inner life Father, Son and Holy Spirit also make possible the thoughts, words and actions of every person who ever existed. If your inner life and mine is like an ocean, what is the inner life of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit?

The amazing thing is that God invites us into his life - by baptism, Eucharist and prayer. St. Paul says that God pours the Holy Spirit into our hearts, giving us participation in God's life.

We are created for that life. Deep down all of us desire it. We want to know the One who can know us. We want to open ourselves to the the One who can really hear us.

I'd like to illustrate this by telling you about a remarkable man. He is a pharmacist and a darn good one. He not only know about drugs, but he listens. People tell him their physical pain and their deeper hurts. He takes interest in each person and they tell him things they never told anyone else - old men, teens, housewives and even guys who drift in off the streets. His own family family members share intimate details of their lives.

This man would be a great priest-confessor - except for one thing. He can't keep a secret! At Thanksgiving Dinner he might blurt out intimate - and embarrassing - detail. The amazing thing is that people keep telling him their secrets. We have a deep desire to be known - warts and all.

That desire cannot be met here below. Even in marriage - where a man and woman share so much - they can even there experience a terrible loneliness. Mark Twain wrote about the "storm of thoughts" inside each person. We are like a sprawling city - some areas attractive, others we would just as soon avoid. Still, we want to be known - and only one can know our depth: the One who made us for himself.

We of course not only want to be known - we want to know. That's why heaven will never get boring, but I will leave that for a different homily. For this Trinity Sunday it's enough to acknowledge:

1) You and I have an immense inner life.**
2) We desire to be known.** And
3) Only One can know us.

As St. Paul tells us, "Love does not disappoint" because into our hearts he has poured his Holy Spirit. Amen.

************

*"life does not consist mainly--or even largely--of facts and happenings. It consists mainly of the storm of thoughts that is forever blowing through one's head. Could you set them down stenographically? No. Could you set down any considerable fraction of them stenographically? No. Fifteen stenographers hard at work couldn't keep up. Therefore a full autobiography has never been written, and it never will be. It would consist of 365 double-size volumes per year--and so if I had been doing my whole autobiographical duty ever since my youth, all the library buildings on the earth could not contain the result."

**Some good, some bad. Dante envisions that for the repentant, the bad will be washed away and only the good memories will enter paradise. (See Purgatory, Canto 31)

***Mark Twain's autobiography testifies to that desire. Why else would he go through the effort of producing a work locked away until every person involved has disappeared from the scene.

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Homily from Father Andrew M. Greeley
http://www.agreeley.com/homilies.html
Most Holy Trinity

May 26th 2013 A.D.
Trinity Sunday - John 16:12-15

“Let not your hearts be troubled"

Background:
Some Catholic theologians are now arguing that only because God is triune is it possible for Her to relate to us. A God who was one person, they say, would not be capable of relationships. But precisely because He has internal relationships is God able to have external relationships too. It’s kind of a neat idea, but I must leave it to others how it stands up to theological analysis. It does make the revelation of the Trinity seem reasonable.

Why else would God stun us with this baffling, if dazzling, notion other then to show us that God could love all beings, even as He loves His Self. Our God is not an isolated entity. Rather She is a network of relationships and hence all human networks are actually or potentially grace-full.

Story:
A group of three young mothers who lived on the same street agreed to pool their time and resources so that they could help each other take care of their kids and at the same time provide one another with a little free time. It worked fine, the kids liked it, the fathers liked it (anything to escape from the demands of child-rearing), and, most important, the women like it. They discovered in practice what they had heard so often in theory: it’s easier to do things as members of a community than as isolated individuals. They bragged to their friends in other streets about how well their little community worked and how everyone should try to imitate them. But then one of the women began *to tally up the hours she gave the community effort and concluded that she was giving more time than the other two. They added up their own times and concluded just the opposite. Indeed they accused the first woman of making up numbers so she could escape her fair share.

Since they had all studied economics in college, they began to shout “free rider” at one another. Soon they were not speaking to one another. Their community collapsed under the pressures of success, resentment, and envy – in that order. See, we told you so, said the neighbors on other streets. Later none of the three could figure out what went wrong.

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Homily from Saint Vincent Archabbey, Latrobe,Pa
http://www.saintvincentarchabbey.org/sunday_homily
Most Holy Trinity

Trinity Sunday, Cycle C
Sunday, May 26, 2013

May 26, 2013
John 16:12-15

Gospel Summary
In this passage from the Last Supper Discourse, Jesus tells his disciples that when the Spirit of Truth comes he will guide them in all truth. He then reveals the true nature of God as a communion of love. Everything the Father has he gives to the Son. Everything the Son has he gives to the Spirit. Everything the Spirit receives he gives to us. Thus the supreme mystery of the gospel: we human beings are offered the gift of living in the communion of eternal truth and love with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Life Implications
The structure of the Eucharistic liturgy that we celebrate enables us to express our faith that our true life even now is communion with the life of God. Each Sunday's gospel unfolds the mystery of the gift of divine life to us. In each gospel Jesus makes all that he receives from the Father's love visible and a gift to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the Eucharistic prayer that follows the proclamation of the gospel and homily, we lift up our hearts to be in union with the love of Christ and pray: "Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever." When, with all the angels and saints, we have said "Amen" to entire church's prayer of gratitude, we ask our Father for the supreme gift of the Bread of Life. In receiving this Bread, which is the Lord, we enter into deeper communion of divine life. And we commit ourselves to allow all that we receive -- the truth and the love -- to flow through us to everyone we encounter in the circumstances of our lives.

Trinity Sunday is a good opportunity to pay special attention to what we do and pray every Sunday at Mass so that we realize more deeply that every Sunday is Trinity Sunday. In addition, the first Scripture reading (Proverbs 8:22-31) reminds us of the first affirmation of the creed that we proclaim every Sunday. Always and everywhere we ought to give thanks for the marvels of creation -- gift of the Father to us through his eternal Divine Wisdom, the Word Incarnate.

We should not allow Trinity Sunday to pass by without mentioning the church's sacramentals, which remind us of our life in the trinity of divine love. One of my favorites is the famous Russian icon painted by Andrei Rublev in the early part of the fifteenth century. The three persons of the Holy Trinity -- Rublev uses the image of the three angels who came to Abraham and Sarah in Genesis 18 -- sit at the eucharistic table in the unity of an intimately related half-circle, beckoning to be completed. The icon reveals that we are all invited to accept the hospitality of the three divine persons in their eternal home, and to share their gift of holy bread and wine.

Rublev's Holy Trinity icon reveals the deepest meaning of the mystery of the church as the communion of life with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit around the Eucharistic table of love. The tree of Mamre by which the Lord appeared to Abraham and Sarah is in the background of the icon. It calls to mind the tree in the middle of the Garden of Eden, and also the tree of the cross -- the ultimate revelation of divine self-giving love made present for us in the Eucharist. The icon reveals the highest ideal and challenge of human existence. We are called to reflect in the church, in our families, and in our world the communion of love, which is the true nature of God. This is the glory and the joy for which we are created.
Campion P. Gavaler, O.S.B.

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Homily from Father Cusick
http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/lowhome.html Meeting Christ in the Liturgy
Most Holy Trinity

Proverbs 8, 22-31; Psalm 8, 4-5.6-7.8-9; Romans 5, 1-5; St.John 16, 12-15

Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Our omnipotent eternal God reveals his inner life of everlasting love through the incarnation and sacrifice of the Son and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. On this Sunday after Pentecost we celebrate the mystery of the Trinity, a truth about God that we could not know except it had been revealed. To know the truth of the Triune nature of God is the gift of God who reaches out to befriend and to save us, drawing us into the everlasting embrace of the Trinity through the real presence of the Son in the Eucharist and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

May religions invoke God as "Father." The deity is often considered the "father of gods and men." In Israel, God is called "Father" inasmuch as he is Creator of the world. (Cf. Deut 32:6; Mal 2:10.) Even more, God is Father because of the covenant and the gift of the law to Israel, "his first-born son."(Ex 4:22) God is also called the Father of the king of Israel. Most especially he is "the Father of the poor," of the orphaned and the widowed, who are under his loving protection. (Cf. 2 Sam 7:14; Ps 68:6.) (CCC 238)

Jesus revealed that God is Father in an unheard of sense: he is Father not only in being Creator; he is eternally Father by his relationship to his only Son who, reciprocally, is Son only in relation to his Father: "No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." (Mt 11:27.) (CCC 240)

For this reason the apostles confess Jesus to be the Word: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"; as "the image of the invisible God"; as the "radiance of the glory of God and the very stamp of his nature." (Jn 1:1; Col 1:15; Heb 1:3.) (CCC 241)

Following this apostolic tradition, the Church confessed at the first ecumenical council at Nicaea (325) that the Son is "consubstantial" with the Father, that is, one only God with him. (The English phrases "of one being" and "one in being" translate the Greek word homoousios, which was rendered in Latin by consubstantialis.) (CCC 242)

The Father and the Son are revealed by the Holy Spirit, sent in His fullness at the first Pentecost to give life and holiness to the Church as "Lord and giver of life."

Before his Passover, Jesus announced the sending of "another Paraclete" (Advocate), the Holy Spirit. At work since creation, having previously "spoken through the prophets," the Spirit will now be with and in the disciples, to teach them and guide them "into all the truth." (Cf. Gen 1:2; Nicene Creed (DS 150); Jn 14:17, 26; 16:13.) The Holy Spirit is thus revealed as anotherdivine person with Jesus and the Father. (CCC 243)

The sweetest gift of the divine person of the Holy Spirit is "the love of God which has been poured into our hearts" by the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. By this gift we enjoy the fruit of grace in love and receive the power and energy to pursue the holiness of the Christian life as, in and by love, we keep the Commandments with joy. For we know that "the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey God."

I look forward to meeting you here again next week as, together, we "meet Christ in the liturgy", Father Cusick

(Publish with permission.) http://www.christusrex.org/www1/mcitl/

(For further reading on today's Gospel see also these paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 91, 243, 244, 485, 687, 690, 692, 1117, 2466, 2615, 2671,.)

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Homily from Father Alex McAllister SDS
http://www.catholicwealdstone.org
Most Holy Trinity

Trinity Sunday

As we progress through the liturgical year we take in turn the wonderful sayings and miracles of Christ, we contemplate the great events of salvation, the birth of Christ, the Last Supper, his passion and death, his resurrection and ascension into heaven, the birth of the Church at Pentecost, the Eucharist on Corpus Christi.

But today we contemplate the greatest mystery of all, the Blessed Trinity, the source of all that was, is and is to come. Today we contemplate the inner mystery of God himself. And I use my words advisedly; we contemplate the mystery of God.

We contemplate - what else can we do in the face of God but contemplate. To contemplate is to turn our gaze on him, to empty our hearts and minds of all other thoughts. In contemplation we become aware of his majesty, his glory, and wonder at his greatness and the extraordinary depth of his love.

There is no higher form of prayer than this; just to spend time away from all our other preoccupations and in reverent silence become aware of his presence which is ever with us but which we constantly push to the background.

Yes, by all means recite your usual prayers; pray over the scriptures; ask God for all your needs; turn to him for forgiveness; offer him your heart and mind and indeed your whole life. But don’t finish your prayers at this point—no, go on. Go on and with your mind’s eye just gaze on his majesty and glory. Say nothing; just spend some time wondering at the greatness and gentleness of God.

Don’t worry about how long you should do this, or whether you are doing it well or not, or whether it is time for tea. Empty your mind of everything else and just ‘be’ with him.

He who is the source of your being surely deserves some moments of your time so don’t be mean and give him just a few seconds every now and then. This is the one who will in due course draw you into eternal communion with him so let yourself get used to his presence here and now.

I say that this is the highest form of prayer, but it is also the most essential form of prayer, indeed this is prayer with a capital P. This is what all the rest leads up to.

We contemplate the mystery of God. And indeed it is a very great mystery. Not a mystery in the sense of a puzzle, although a puzzle he certainly is; but a mystery in the sense that we are full of wonder and awe in his presence, a mystery in the sense that our human understanding can only begin to appreciate.

But God has, in fact, chosen to reveal quite a lot about himself to us. This gradual revelation can be traced through the pages of the Old Testament and then the culmination of revelation is set forth in the Gospels in the person and words of Jesus.

Today we celebrate the revelation that he is three persons in one God —Father, Son and Spirit. This wasn’t handed down from the mountain in tablets of stone like the Ten Commandments but it was revealed directly to us by God himself in the person of Jesus his Son.

Jesus himself is the personal revelation of God; he is God made manifest in the world and to the world.

Jesus taught us that he came from the Father, he told us to call him Abba, he taught that the Father is the creator and sustainer of all things and he taught us that he is love. When he returned to the Father Jesus bequeathed to us the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, the Spirit of Truth who would guide and protect the Church keeping it holy and free from error in matters of faith.

Pontius Pilate famously said, “What is truth?” But Jesus tells us in the Gospel today that the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth and that he will guide us to the complete truth. What is this truth? It is all that we Christians have come to believe that God has revealed to us.

Perhaps we should rephrase Pilate’s question: not “What is truth?” but “Who is truth?” And the answer is: “The truth is God alone.”

God is love, God is true, God is one. There is no error in him; there is no evil; there is no disunity. God is above all, and is over all, and brings all things together in himself. In due time the whole created order will come to this realisation and will bow down and worship him in humble adoration.

All these things we believe as Christians, all these things we know to be true.

And the Blessed Trinity is the highest model for our Christian life. Three distinct persons, yet one God; each person living in harmony and perfect unity with the others. The three persons of the Trinity have their own roles and function but there is no disunity only perfect harmony.

The Church of God on earth aims to reflect this unity and this is indeed Christ’s wish and prayer for us, “May they all be one. Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you.” (Jn 17:21)

We are a living community of faith and as such we really do strive for the unity Christ prays for. There are plenty of problems along the way caused by sin and our human failings but we really do long for that unity that Christ desires for us.

In the risen life of heaven we will be taken up into God and become one with him. This is our true destiny but it is a destiny that through our Baptism has already begun for us. So let us strive to reach this goal with the help of the Holy Spirit and let us do nothing that causes division or damages this community of faith.

Let the people around us realise that something extraordinary is happening here. Let them see that the unity, that the truth, that the love of God is shining forth from this place and that he is really present among us. That this is not merely a community gathered in name alone but is a manifestation of the presence of God himself here in this place.

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